17S 



NETHERLANDS (HISTORY.) 



ocean. Compi llt-d by necessity to make war against 

 the Spanish fleets, the republicans soon became 

 excellent sailors, and enterprising, indefatigable 

 merchants, who visited every sea, and to whom no 

 profit was too distant, no obstacle too discouraging. 

 The commerce of Cadiz, Antwerp, and Lisbon fell 

 into their hands ; and in this way the United Nether- 

 lands were, in the middle of the seventeenth century, 

 the first commercial state and the first maritime power 

 in the world; for, with about 100 vessels of war, they 

 bade defiance to every rival, while England and 

 France rejoiced in the humiliation of the dreaded 

 monarchy of Spain. The East India company (q. v.), 

 established in 1602, with a capital of only 6.459,840 

 guilders, conquered islands and kingdoms in Asia. 

 (See India, Dutch ; and East India Companies.) 

 With about 200 ships, they carried on a trade with 

 China, and even with Japan. They alone supplied 

 Europe with the productions of the Spice islands. 

 The gpld, the pearls, the precious jewels of the East, 

 all passed through their hands. The West India 

 company was not so successful, on account of the 

 jealousy of England and France. Holland, neverthe- 

 less, for a long time maintained the dominion of the 

 sea ; Tromp and Ruyter were victorious, and Louis 

 XIV., who had laid a deep plan for humbling the 

 during republic, was finally exhausted, and obliged 

 to sue for peace. But these conflicts with England 

 and France, and the impolitic participation in the 

 Spanish succession war, enfeebled Holland ; while 

 the republican jealousy of the ambition of the house 

 of Orange kindled the flames of party rage and civil 

 war, which prevented the adoption of a fixed and 

 consistent course of policy. From the time of Mau- 

 rice and Barneveldt, the two leading parties (the 

 Orange and the patriotic, or the anti-Orange) had 

 gradually assumed various shades of opinion, under 

 feaders who pursued their own selfish views. By 

 the same causes, religion was brought into play: the 

 strict Calvinists were, in general, Orangists ; those 

 of other opinions, patriotic ; thence the frequent poli- 

 tical convulsions, caused sometimes by the encroach- 

 ments of some stadtholders, sometimes by popular 

 commotions, and which were always preceded by an 

 arbitrary administration of government, or unsuccess- 

 ful wars. This was shown in 1618, 1672, and 1702, 

 and, more fully, in 1747, in which year the house of 

 Orange triumphed over the republican party. Wil- 

 liam IV. received the dignity of stadtholder in all 

 the seven provinces, hereditary in his male and female 

 descendants. The Spanish or Catholic Netherlands 

 had, meanwhile, become the fatal apple of discord, 

 for which Austria and France contended for two 

 centuries. By the peace of the Pyrenees, in 1659, 

 and of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1668, Spain was finally 

 compelled to cede to France all Artois, some places 

 in Flanders, Hainault, Namur, and Luxemburg ; 

 and these countries were subsequently called the 

 French Netherlands. By the peace of Utrecht, 

 which put an end to the Spanish succession war in 

 1713, the Spanish Netherlands were restored to the 

 house of Austria, which held them till the French 

 revolution, though they rebelled against Joseph II., 

 especially under Van der Noot. In 1782, that mon- 

 arch violated the barrier-treaty of 1715, which gave 

 the republic of the United Netherlands the right of 

 keeping garrisons in some Belgic fortresses on the 

 French frontier; he compelled the Dutch garrisons 

 to evacuate them, and caused most of the fortresses 

 to be demolished. This measure greatly facilitated 

 the conquest of Belgium by the French (1792 and 

 1794), which was ceded to them, in 1797, by the 

 peace of Campo-Formio. Meanwhile the internal 

 coin. .lotions in the United Provinces were not sup- 

 pn -ied. The anti-Orange or republican party, by 



no means annihilated by the rendering of the stadt- 

 lioldership hereditary in the house of Orange, raised 

 its lii-ad anew in 1786. The disputes in 1781, with 

 Louis, duke of Brunswick, who had been for thirty 

 years, field-marshal of the United Provinces, and had 

 exercised, for a time, the guardianship of the heredi- 

 tary stadtholder William V.,were merely preludes to 

 the furious conflict that now arose. The wife of the 

 stadtholder, sister of king Frederic William of Prussia, 

 arrested by violent patriots, besought the succour of 

 her brother. A Prussian army of 25.000 men ap- 

 peared to avenge the insult, and defend the rights of 

 William V. The resistance of the patriots was badly 

 conducted and unsuccessful. After the storming of 

 \mstelveen, Amsterdam fell (September, 1787) into 

 the power of the Prussians. The superiority of the 

 stadtholder's party was decisive ; the rights of the 

 house of Orange were confirmed, with additions, and 

 a close alliance was concluded between the republic, 

 Great Britain, and Prussia. The anti-Orange party 

 was, however, only intimidated, while its old hate 

 was imbittered. When, therefore, the victorious 

 banners of republicaniaed France waved (1794) on 

 the frontiers of Holland, the malcontents rose. Piche- 

 gru, aided by the seventy of the winter of 1795, and 

 by the favour of the popular party towards the French, 

 made an easy conquest of Holland. The hereditary 

 stadtholder fled, with his family, to England, and the 

 Batavian republic was formed May 16, 1795. The 

 old provinces were merged into a sole republic ; the 

 legislative power, in imitation of the French, given 

 to a representative assembly; and the executive, to 

 a directory of five. The new republic was obliged to 

 cede to France some southern districts, particularly 

 Maestricht, Venloo, Limburg, and Dutch Flanders; 

 to form a perpetual alliance with that state ; pay a 

 sum of 100,000,000 guilders; and allow French troops 

 to occupy its territories. Six years after, it was found 

 necessary to alter this constitution (Oct. 18, 1801). 

 The republic was again divided into the old pro- 

 vinces ; in addition to which the land of the generally 

 was formed into an eighth. The administration of 

 the government was simplified ; the legislative as- 

 sembly diminished to thirty-five deputies ; and the 

 executive power was extended to a council of state 

 of twelve men. Notwithstanding these alterations, 

 the Batavian republic, incapable of effecting its ends 

 with the feeble remains of its strength, saw its fleets 

 overpowered by those of Britain ; its colonies laid 

 waste ; its commerce limited to a coasting trade, 

 and to the domestic consumption ; and the bank of 

 Amsterdam ruined. By the peace of Amiens, in 

 1802, it was deprived of one of its richest colonies 

 Ceylon. Scarcely were the hopes of better times 

 awakened, when Holland was involved in the new 

 wars of France with Great Britain. Surinam and 

 the Cape fell into the power of the British. British 

 vessels blockaded the coasts of Holland, and thus the 

 last nerve of its prosperity seemed destroyed. For 

 the third time, the Dutch constitution was changed 

 (April 29, 1805). The state was divided into eight 

 departments, and a legislative body of nineteen 

 members, with a pensionary (Schimmelpennink), 

 chosen for the term of five years, and who adminis- 

 tered the executive power, was created. A council of 

 state, consisting of from five to nine members, was 

 assigned to the pensionary, and five ministers had 

 the care of affairs. The pensionary received an 

 indefinite sum, for the management of which he was 

 not required to give any account. But in this stormy 

 period, even Schimmelpennink's virtue was insuf- 

 ficient for the salvation of a country which, by the 

 loss of its ancient independence, and of its abundant 

 resources, was already brought to the verge of ruin. 

 In this troubled situation, the only alternative seemed 



